Greater Anglia further reduce train timetable due to drop in passengers

Greater Anglia is making more temporary changes to it's weekday train timetable due to less passengers travelling.

The changes, taking effect from today (Monday 10 January), will be the second time Greater Anglia have shortened their number of trains running in a week, having initially reduced them last Monday (3 January).

The new changes will see the current weekday timetable introduced before Christmas replaced with a 'sunday-style' schedule, but with earlier first trains and more trains at peak times.

The busiest services will be operated with eight or ten-carriage trains, while four peak services on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth route will be removed, which are the only changes being made to the regional route service.

That leaves an hourly service on most routes or a two-hourly service on the Ipswich to Peterborough as normal.

The Norwich to London Liverpool Street intercity service will become hourly, but the weekend timetable will stay unchanged.

Why are there further reductions?

More changes are being made to train timetables by Greater Anglia in order to optimise their services, as passenger numbers have fallen yet again in recent weeks.

They're currently at 40-50% of pre-pandemic levels, with the trainline seeing 30% of those numbers at peak times.

Passengers levels have also fallen following the Government's recent 'Plan B' guidance to work from home if possible, while fewer people are also choosing to travel on public transport amid the significant amount of Covid cases.

But, the changes shouldn't be too alarming for those who continue to use Greater Anglia services, with there being about 74% of pre-pandemic trains continuing to run.

Passengers are advised to check the revised timetable before travelling using the Greater Anglia website or app.

See the new timetable below:

Intercity

• Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester – London Liverpool Street 1 train per hour

Great Eastern

• Ipswich – Liverpool Street, Clacton – Liverpool Street, Walton-on-the-Naze – Thorpe-le-Soken, Manningtree – Harwich, Braintree – Witham, Southminster – Wickford, Colchester – Colchester Town. 1 train per hour
• Southend – London Liverpool Street, 2 trains per hour
• Colchester – London Liverpool Street 3 trains per hour

West Anglia

• Cambridge-London Liverpool Street, Hertford East – Stratford, Stratford – Meridian Water, 2 trains per hour
• Bishop’s Stortford – Liverpool Street 4 trains per hour

Regional routes

• Norwich – Cambridge/Stansted; Norwich -Lowestoft; Norwich - Great Yarmouth; Norwich – Sheringham; Ipswich – Lowestoft; Ipswich - Felixstowe and Ipswich - Cambridge. Marks Tey - Sudbury 1 train per hour
• Ipswich – Peterborough 1 train every 2 hours

Stansted Express

• Stansted Airport-London 2 trains per hour

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